A single "These Come From Trees" sticker can save around a tree's worth of paper, every year

More than 50,000 stickers distributed since 3/07

Laminated stickers hold up to washing.

A typical fast food restaurant with two bathrooms can use up to 2000 pounds of paper towels a year

The average coffee shop uses 1000 pounds of paper towels a year

A single tree produces around 100 pounds of paper

Roughly 50,000 fast food restaurants in the US

200,000 gas stations in the US

14,000 McDonalds' in the US

10,000 Starbucks in the US

Thursday, January 1, 2009

These Come From Trees and K-12 Schools

The idea of "education" is a big piece of These Come From Trees. That is to say, at the end of the day, the individual stickers themselves are a quick, polite piece of instruction that help us all say "Oh, yeah, that's right. How much of these do I really need?" So it only makes sense that These Come From Trees stickers and schools would make a great team!

The These Come From Trees Education Challenge

A little more than a year ago, an enterprising student from Aragon High School up here in the Bay Area sent an email to us asking if we could provide him with complimentary stickers, as his school might not have the budget to buy stickers (and he, as a student, might not be able to navigate the ins and outs of purchasing via the school).

At the same time, there are some opportunities that can take a good idea, like These Come From Trees at your school, and make it better.

I asked some of the teachers who had taken advantage of our Education Challenge what they did to make the experience even more educational, and these were some of the ideas that they came back with. Maybe you can take advantage at your own school?

Document your deployment of TCFT Stickers: Take pictures of your class deploying them. Maybe even video. Put together a video of your class deploying the stickers and publish it to YouTube. We'll embed it in this blog!

Or even create your own blog: Take the pictures you took, and publish them on your own blog. We'll link to you!

What about making a lesson out of the stickers, even aside from the deployment?

Conservation: Do a lesson around how "Reduce" can be as big a part of conservation as "Recycle." What else can be reduced even before we have a chance to recycle it?

Math: Can you do experiments around how much paper the stickers are saving? Test before and after they go up. Do estimations of how many paper towels get used at your school, in your district, in your state. Do estimations of how many paper towels could be saved in your school, district, and state. How many trees is that?

Business: Explain the idea of "return on investment" and how using some paper now (the sticker) can save more later. How long until the investment is paid back? How about for your whole school?

The more detailed writeup is available below. Most of all, let us know what you did, by emailing us at thesecomefromtrees@gmail.com or by commenting on this post! And when you're ready to put up These Come From Trees stickers at your school, let us know!

9 comments:

Jenny P.
said...

The Environmental Action Club at my high school (Amherst Regional) would love to put these stickers on all of the paper towel dispensers and photocopiers in our school. I saw your Education Challenge and was wondering who to contact to receive complimentary stickers. I know we have at least 50 dispensers/photocopiers, so that would be a good amount to start with.Thanks so much,Jenny P.

Thanks so much for what you are doing. I have a favor to ask. Because you have your lesson plans placed on www.scribd.com, our school web server has them blocked as adult/pornographic content. They will not unblock scribd because (other than your document) there is apparently adult content on there. Is there any way that you can post your plans to teachertube, which is accessible on our server. Thanks

I am just confirming that you received my request for stickers to participate in the K-12 Challenge. I filled out the digital form on your website requesting 200 stickers. I teach high school biology and my students are very excited about placing the stickers and documenting the results. Thanks for doing what you do and offering the chance for schools to participate. It is awesome! You can reach me at robertsme@wilkes.k12.nc.us

Protecting our environment is really important and we all must do our part. Make sure to recycle any extra paper used, too often it is protect the tress with trees (paper) as the medium for trying to raise awareness.

Buy "These Come From Trees" Stickers for posting in your neck of the woods!

Below you can buy packs of "These Come From Trees" stickers.

Suffice it to say, we figure $10 for 50 stickers is a pretty fair shake. 20 cents worth of sticker can save a tree's worth of paper each year, 100 pounds.

The charge is to cover cost of durable laminated stickers (to hold up to washing), postage, and fulfillment costs. Overages will be donated to Sierra Club.

From our field testing, each sticker deployed saves about a tree's worth of paper (~100 lbs.) a year. Crazy, isn't it? Buy These Come From Trees with Any Major Credit Card Via Paypal(No Paypal account? No problem. Look for the "Don't Have a Paypal Account?" section on the order page and use any major credit card. Shipping included in price.)